<p>allena if you think Santa Clarit is a middle class neighborhood you are a nut in the true sense of the word. but i would assume since your from santa clarita you probably have been sheltered. the average home there is worth well over 600,000 thousand dollars. last time i checked that was not middle class. and the town features many gated communites. A "middle class" area would be like Pamona or if you were in the bay, antioch.</p>
<p>On the subject of divides its true. In california you are either well off or your not. Look at orange country: irvine, new port, costa mesa, etc. than look at the part of orange country liek anahiem, the city of orange, etc. the people livin out in anahiem know how to fight for whats theirs and theyll let you punk suburbanites know whats up. as far as racial divides its true. since the latinos and blacks generaly live in poorer neighborhoods, with poorer schools and, less economic opportunites such as business firms situated in their locale, i must say that they tend to make up the faces in the lower income neighborhoods. does that matter? not to me. i have a trait i guess which is typical of a bay area native: tolerance. And by the way what is with all these people from pleasanton, dublin, livermoore, pleasant hill, claiming the bay. anyone whos a l bay area native knows that the bay stops at the berkeley and castro valley hills. The amador valley is <em>not</em> the bay, its upper middle class suburban sprawl. okay im done serial posting.</p>
<p>pomona isnt like antioch hahahaha pomona for the most part is lower middle class, there are some pretty bad areas in pomona too... antioch feels middle class. i actually think santa clarita compares more with antioch than pomona does.</p>
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To the guy talking about us rocking our norcal gear. sush. NORCAL is a skateboard company. And as i skateboarder im sick of all you guys jocking our style. ive been skating since middle school and it has never stopped. Since when is sitting in 3 hours of traffic just to get through orange country considerd cool. NORCAL NORCAL NORCAL NORCAL.</p>
<p>PS look how stupid people are in so cal. they actually though arnold was a legitimate choice where as we in the bay did not. that just goes to show that i should be crowned king of california. and when i am crowned king so cal can go back to mexico where it belongs!
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<p>Whether it is a skateboard company is beside the point, it is still called "Nor Cal" right? Sick of SoCal people jocking YOUR style?! Seriously don't make me laugh, where do you think the skateboarding you see today came from? Where do you think all the skate companies are located? Also I've lived in Orange County for over 15 years and I've never sat through 3 hour traffic, enough with the exaggerations. </p>
<p>And you guys thought Gray Davis was a legitimate choice, enough said, haha.</p>
<p>Gray davis was a fine choice. name one thing aarnold has accomplished since taking office. is raising california tuition and cutting funding for schools supposed to be an accomplishement? And if you to the girl who thinks santa clarita is like antioch... your in a dream world.</p>
<p>oh yea and from the time it took me to get from lax airport to carlsbad california was exactly 3 hours and 10 minutes. with a toal of 6 traffic accidents and a billion idiot southern california drivers. by the way pacific beach and san diego are so lame its not even funny. its so blink 182 over there it makes you want to hurl. you walk by a bar and theres a bunch of dorks singing to an offspring song, if your gonna sing along to punk rock at a bar, atleast make sure its good punk.</p>
<p>Calidan- Cool. Question, what part of California are you from?</p>
<p>I live in norcal, how did I do?</p>
<p>beverly hills = white
inglewood = black
san fernando valley = was white when I grew up there
east LA = hispanic
compton = black
cerritos = hispanic?
huntington beach = white
santa ana = hispanic, mixed?
newport beach = white
mission viejo = hispanic?
arcadia = asian
la puente = hispanic?
fontana = hispanic?</p>
<p>What about Monterey Park?</p>
<p>wow bettina, u did pretty good!! ;)</p>
<p>san fernando valley = mix hispanic and white (also depends on what part of the valley you go to i guess)
cerritos = ASIAN
mission viejo = WHITE (very conservative area, i read in the LA Times how the white community wanted to block some housing project bcuz they feared "lower class" ppl coming in)
fontana = white (also one of the most conservative areas around)</p>
<p>the rest are correct</p>
<p>monterey park is asian/hispanic. most of the san gabriel valley is majority asian with a big hispanic minority</p>
<p>see, even living in norcal u can tell the racial division of the LA area.</p>
<p>Ha, thanks for the fun survey. My grandparents lived in Alhambra, and we used to visit often (mostly white, a little hispanic)in the 60's and 70's, so I was really surprised to see it was all Chinese now, even the street signs, when I visited a few years ago. I then stumbled across an article in Atlantic Monthly magazine about Montery Park and how it changed so radically. Very interesting article but I can't find it on the website anymore, but I googled this up:</p>
<p>The man generally considered responsible for Chinese immigrants moving to Monterey Park is realtor Frederick Hsieh. </p>
<p>Born in Guilin, China, Hsieh lived in Shanghai until he was 12, and then moved to Hong Kong with his family. After graduating from high school in Hong Kong, he came to the United States as a foreign student. </p>
<p>He earned a bachelors degree in civil engineering and a masters in water resource from Oregon State University. One of his future occupations after graduating was as an engineer in Los Angeles. </p>
<p>After Hsieh earned his real estate license in the early-70s, he moved to Monterey Park and began buying properties. In 1977, he announced at a Chamber of Commerce meeting that Monterey Park would be a Mecca for Chinese immigrants. </p>
<p>Nobody believed him, said Louise Davis, Monterey Parks current treasurer and a two-time former mayor. He said the majority of the people here will be Chinese-and it happened. </p>
<p>Davis, 72, a resident for the past 40 years, said Hsieh aggressively promoted Monterey Park in Taiwan and Hong Kong as the Chinese Beverly Hills. They could be sitting in a bar in Taiwan and someone mentions Monterey Park, and theyd all be familiar with Monterey Park, Davis said. </p>
<p>An astute businessman, Hsieh believes that political insecurity in Asia, particularly in Hong Kong, will force many Chinese to invest in the U.S.</p>
<p>Hmmm. </p>
<p>I have lived in Southern California. More importantly, I have lived on the coast wedged between two extremely high cost areas (San Diego and Orange County). </p>
<p>I would hardly call Southern California a "ghetto." Considering the median home price in SD County is about $450,000 (houses in the coastal areas of the North County rarely sell for under $800,000 anymore), I think we all need to reevaluate what we believe.</p>
<p>There are racial divisions, but I never really thought of it before. I don't think it is caused by racial tension and disgust, but more because most school districts serve an area in which house prices/standards of living are the same and thus there are largely white and largely hispanic schools.</p>
<p>Furthermore, the South is definitely injured by illegal immigration. (I, personally, am not against closing this country out of paranoia, but that's another story). Most hospitals in the South are forced into debts approaching a hundred million dollars because they don't refuse medical care.</p>
<p>I think the South is a little more intense and materialistic. I also find a frighteningly large amount of stuff on the OC to be believable. But I also think that Californinans as a whole are pretty cool people. </p>
<p>To whoever said we use "the" when giving directions- I've never noticed that before! But I do say take the 5 to the 405...is it that odd?</p>
<p>Mandez if you think san diego county has a median home price of 450,000$ you are crazy. San diego and santa barbra country have the highest median home values in california. The median home price for these countiesi believe is still <em>slightly</em> below 600,000 dollars.</p>
<p>manderz1 - "But I do say take the 5 to the 405...is it that odd?" Yes, that's odd. There are very few parts of the country where that 'the' is part of a road name, and SoCal is one of the most obvious ones. In all the other parts of the country where I've lived and traveled (including the Bay Area where I now live), people would say, "Take 5 to 405," or perhaps, "Take I-5 to 405." (Locally we'd say, "Take 880 South to 280 North," for instance.) It sounds bizarre to hear that 'the' stuck in there in front of road names, I sure do wish that habit hadn't caught hold, it almost sounds prissy and stuck-up, and I do cringe every time I hear it.</p>
<p>As for northern vs. southern CA, we live outside of San Jose now (northern CA) and have visited extensively and considered many schools for my older S all over CA. He likes and has applied to several in southern CA but is less likely to consider them for two reasons:</p>
<p>(1) The traffic in the LA area completely and totally stinks -- and it is nothing at all like the Bay Area traffic, in which I commute daily. There is surely traffic on the peninsula between SF and SJ, but never at 10am on a Tuesday, for instance, when LA traffic is sometimes at a standstill. There truly is no honest comparison in this department. One may be bad, but the other is orders of magnitude worse.</p>
<p>(2) The air quality is awful. Even as far east as Pasadena and Claremont, my S (who has a form of asthma) found it occasionally difficult to breathe normally when we visited. If he had that much trouble on our visits in February when the air is not as smoggy as other times of year, he'd be likely to have worse troubles in other seasons. He is truly afraid for his health in SoCal, and is reluctantly placing those schools lower on his preference list. If you have breathing problems, please do take this into consideration and investigate before making your choices.</p>
<p>YMMV, but traffic and air quality are both major detractors for us from the SoCal possibilities.</p>
<p>Fontana is VERY HISPANIC and democratic. Santa Ana is VERY HISPANIC</p>
<p>Santa Ana is Asian, chiefly Vietnamese.</p>
<p>croberts532, yes Santa Clarita is farily high class area. I live in a condo (and not that nice of one!) that sells for over $300,000. But I'm not sure where you get off telling me that I've lived a sheltered life. I have lived out here my own life, however unlike a lotm of people out here I realize what a nice area it is.</p>
<p>ha, i'm from socal, and i say "the" when giving directions as well. </p>
<p>anyway, i actually think that living normally in a place where houses cost $5 million and students go to school with minorities is socially beneficial. i never really thought about asians or hispanics as minorities, nor did i think that it was strange that hummers and z3s mingled in the student parking lot with "ghetto" minivans. when i went to new york this summer for 3 weeks, i was shocked at the "preppiness" of the east coast. in general, our city is wealthy and probably more materialistic than most, but (even though i'm going to get burned for this) why should that be such a major issue? suburbia is suburbia. just because we have the beach doesn't mean we go there all the time. and the traffic isn't bad unless you live in LA or San Diego.</p>
<p>although, i do like the fact that i tanned in my backyard on 12/22. i've embraced an atmosphere of vapidity...oh, and i've retained my intelligence. i think.</p>
<p>California99 it's funny that you say that about tanning, since I was thinking about heading down to the pool... That should be reason enough to love Socal! Where else can you get a nice tan a few days before Christmas.</p>
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Gray davis was a fine choice. name one thing aarnold has accomplished since taking office. is raising california tuition and cutting funding for schools supposed to be an accomplishement?
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<p>A fine choice? That's why he was recalled? You're holding someone accountable for the mess created by your man? Haha, the audacity. </p>
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oh yea and from the time it took me to get from lax airport to carlsbad california was exactly 3 hours and 10 minutes. with a toal of 6 traffic accidents and a billion idiot southern california drivers.
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<p>Umm buddy you said it took 3 hours to get through Orange County in your original post. LAX is in Los Angeles and Carlsbad is in San Diego, it took you 3 hours and 10 minutes to get from Los Angeles to San Diego.</p>
<p>Gray Davis created no mess. Arguably the biggest state should have the biggest deficit. Seeing as how its merely a mirror to the country. And Like i said before it took me 3 hours and 10 minutes to get from lax to carlsbad. And as we all know traffic is fine until you hit orange county. so seeing as how i was actually in the car at the moment i repeatL since when is driving 3 hours through orange county considerd cool?</p>